Melodrama, mayhem, and madcap hijinks color this pairing of single-act plays written by Peter Shaffer and Tom Stoppard.

Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer (Act I): Lovesick and desperate, sculptor Brindsley Miller has embellished his apartment with furniture and objects d’arte “borrowed” from the absent antique collector next door, hoping to impress his fiancée’s pompous father and a wealthy art dealer. The fussy neighbor, Harold Gorringe, returns just as a blown fuse plunges the apartment into darkness and Brindsley is revealed. Unexpected guests, aging spinsters, errant phone cords, and other snares impede his frantic attempts to return the purloined items before light is restored.
 
The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard (Act II): Feuding theatre critics Moon and Birdboot, the first a fusty philanderer and the second a pompous and vindictive second stringer, are swept into the whodunit they are viewing. In the hilarious spoof of Agatha Christie-like melodramas that follows, the body under the sofa proves to be the missing first string critic. As mists rise about isolated Muldoon Manor, Moon and Birdboot become dangerously implicated in the lethal activities of an escaped madman.

Olathe Civic Theatre Association is an all-volunteer 501c3 organization producing theatre in Olathe since 1974. Performing in the Buddy Rogers Family Playhouse, OCTA produces high-quality, engaging, and thought-provoking theatre productions a year.

Through the generosity of volunteers, season ticket holders, donors, city, and community, in addition to a dedicated Board of Directors, OCTA has grown into one of the most progressive community theaters in the Kansas City metropolitan area.